


The Proper Method of Building Pillow Forts

by Anonymous_Ostrich



Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt, pillow forts, swimmer boyfriends being nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:32:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1953441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Ostrich/pseuds/Anonymous_Ostrich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei thinks Nagisa has an absurd amount of pillows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Proper Method of Building Pillow Forts

“That… Is a  _tremendous_ amount of pillows.” Rei said stiffly, still deciding whether or not he wanted to budge from the doorway.   
  
“I know!” Nagisa exclaimed brightly, largely contrasting Rei’s attitude on the situation. “Isn’t it great?”   
  
“ _Why_ are there so many pillows?” Rei asked, pushing his glasses further up his nose.    
  
“Because they’re soft,” Nagisa replied, in a tone that suggested he didn’t fully understand the question. “Don’t you like pillows, Rei-chan?”   
  
“No, I…” Rei sighed and brought a hand to his forehead. “I’m inquiring as to why there are  _so many_ .”   


“Because I brought all the pillows we had into my room.” Nagisa said matter-of-factly. Rei blinked at him slowly. 

Nagisa’s bedroom was so covered in pillows, you could barely see anything but. Pillows of all different shapes, sizes and colors littered the bed and floor, piles of them here and there. Rei stood just at the threshold of the stuffed mess, unsure at this point as to how one family could possess  _this many pillows_ .   
  
“Is  _this_ what you wanted me to see? This is why you invited me over?” Rei asked confusedly, and Nagisa nodded. “Of course! My family isn’t coming home until the weekend, so I made a Pillow Haven and I wanted to share it with Rei-chan!” he said, voice full of determination. Rei felt his eyebrow twitch.   
  
“What am _I_ supposed to do with all of this?” he asked incredulously, and Nagisa bounded past him into the room at full speed, jumping into a pile of pillows and sending a few of the smaller ones flying.    
  
“Rei-chan… It’s a room. Full of pillows.  _The adventures write themselves_ .” Nagisa announced, burying into another pile and nearly vanishing from sight altogether.    
  
Rei frowned. “You expect me to dive into that, like it’s water or something?”   
  
“That’s right, Rei-chan,” Nagisa’s muffled voice came, with an unmistakable tone of mischievousness, “I expect you to  _dive_ .” The reference was completely lost on Rei, and he knew that, but he couldn’t help himself.

Rei sighed deeply, and surveyed the room hesitantly, finally kneeling down on some of the pillows near the door. It wasn’t as if he didn’t like the idea of rolling around in a huge pile of pillows with his boyfriend, but there were much more efficient ways to spend time together that didn’t involve dirtying all these pillows and burying his room in stuffing for no real reason.

Nagisa surfaced just in front of Rei, smiling at him, his hair already a static-y mess. “Have you ever made a pillow fort, Rei-chan?” he asked excitedly.   
  
“Are your parents collectors or something? Because no human should have this many pillows on hand.” Rei said, avoiding the question.

Nagisa squirmed in between Rei’s knees and smiled, snatching up a smaller pillow and placing it gently on Rei’s head. Rei would have normally swatted it away, but his boyfriend was very close to him, flashing him that wheedling little smile, and his irritation with the situation faded rather quickly. 

“Well? Pillow fort?”   
  
“I’ve never made one, no,” Rei answered simply.   
  
“Why not?”   
  
“I just never saw the point, I guess,” Rei said honestly. He didn’t see the point in mentioning that he had never known anyone worth making a pillow fort  _with_. It didn’t seem important. 

“We should make one then! Come on, Rei-chan, I’ve always wanted to have an entire room full of pillows—”   
  
“That’s probably because it’s not something that a person usually experiences under normal circumstances.”   
  
“—so I don’t want to waste this! Grab some pillows and help!” Nagisa was already piling up pillows for the foundation of the fort, and after a moment of watching him diligently work, Rei succumbed to the blonde’s whims and started collecting the most stable pillows he could find.   
  
.

.

.

In under thirty minutes, Nagisa and Rei had completed their fort. 

Rei had enjoyed himself more than he would have expected, turning the entire endeavor into an architectural project. Although Nagisa had called him a stick-in-the-mud when he first began babbling about numbers and weight times mass, the boy had to admit that they had created the world’s finest pillow fort when all was said and done.   
  
The two of them stared at their masterpiece with an odd sense of accomplishment.    
  
“That was actually very fun,” Rei sighed, pushing up his glasses again, as he often did when he felt successful. Nagisa nodded. “I told you it would be. Now for the fun part! Come on, Rei-chan!” he said, and dropped to his knees, starting to army-crawl inside.    
  
“W-wait, Nagisa-kun, we haven’t tested it yet for durability! The foundation isn’t firm enough to—”   
  
“Rei-chan, when you make a pillow fort, you’re supposed to go  _inside it_ . Get in here!” he commanded from inside, and Rei sighed, crouching over and carefully climbing inside.   
  
The light was instantly blotted out by the mass of cloth surrounding them; it was surprisingly dark inside. Rei crawled over to Nagisa, who was laying on his back with his arms behind his head, smiling at the ceiling.    
  
“This is a great pillow fort, Rei-chan. It’s even better because you helped make it.”   
  
Rei felt his face and neck burn with a familiar feeling, and he sat next to Nagisa, looking around. “I don’t think the structure is very sound. Buildings should definitely never be constructed out of pillows.” he said authoritatively.   
  
“I don’t think we ever have to worry about that happening, Rei-chan.” Nagisa pointed out with a laugh.   
  
Rei managed a smile. “No, I don’t suppose so,” he said.

There was a silence that followed, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Rei liked these times best, when he and Nagisa could just be together, even if no words were being spoken. Nagisa was an exceedingly easy person to be around, but it wasn’t even just that, there was more to it and Rei knew that. He had never felt like he  _needed_ someone before, he had never yearned to see a person each and every day. And even though they had just done something extremely silly, doing it with Nagisa, in of itself, was fulfilling.

Nagisa had a knack for making Rei do things he wouldn’t have normally done on his own. When he first met the blonde swimmer, this trait had irritated and confused him. But considering everything that had happened, and all of the things Rei had gotten to do and the people he had gotten to meet and befriend, he felt that he owed everything to this boy.   
  
“Hey,” Nagisa broke the silence, turning his head to glance at his boyfriend, “Rei-chan. I wish we had met when we were kids. I think I would have really liked being your friend.”   
  
“Oh?” Rei thought about Haru, Makoto, Rin and Nagisa all welcoming him into their group. How different would his life had been if that had happened? 

“Why is that?”   
  
“I would have built pillow forts with you. We could have done a lot of fun things like that, all the time,” Nagisa said, smiling at him. Rei felt himself blushing again. 

“But things would have been different. Maybe we wouldn’t have the same feelings for eachother that we have now,” Rei pointed out. 

Nagisa shook his head. “No, I would have always ended up having feelings for Rei-chan. Because you’re Rei-chan.” he said simply, and Rei swallowed something hard in his throat. He stared at Nagisa, trying to fully process his words, when Nagisa snickered cheekily and pressed a finger to his own lips. 

“You can kiss me if you want to,” he said invitingly, and Rei chuckled and leaned forward, his mouth eagerly meeting Nagisa’s.   
  
Nagisa whimpered softly into the other’s mouth in excitement, effectively causing Rei’s mind to shut down. To stabilize himself, Rei rested one of his elbows next to Nagisa’s shoulder, his other hand raking through the boy’s messy blonde hair. Nagisa happily slipped his arms around Rei’s neck, keeping him close, warm mouth working effortlessly against Rei’s and nibbling at his bottom lip. The two of them had gotten rather good at this.   
  
They kissed for several fevered moments until finally pulling away from each other, their breathing labored, their cheeks tinted pink. Nagisa smiled at Rei, holding him close still.    
  
“Rei-chan… I love you a lot…” he said unashamedly, and Rei felt his heart do a backflip, a familiar sensation whenever he heard the phrase. He brushed away some hair from Nagisa’s forehead and planted his mouth there, gently.    


He decided he liked making pillow forts, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to send me a Free! prompt, send me an ask! I'm pretty much taking them all the time. (ostrich-chan-san.tumblr.com)


End file.
